DB, what makes you think Eliezer is talking only about Christianity and not equally about Orthodox Judaism? (Hint: look at his name, or his past postings here.) In fact, how can it make sense to say (1) he’s definitely talking specifically about Christianity even though (2) he says “religion” instead and (3) Jesus is only a footnote?
I think you’re clearly right that there’s some sense of the wonder of the universe in YHWH’s speech to Job, and also in (e.g.) Psalm 19. But I don’t think Eliezer’s point is much dented by this: he’s saying that although some religious folks now like to say that religion is all about the awe and wonder and beauty of the universe, those weren’t major themes until recent times. Look even at those two passages, which I think are about the best the Bible has to offer in this department. In Job the awe-and-wonder-and-beauty is strictly subordinated to the real job at hand, which is reminding Job of how much bigger and cleverer and stronger God is than him, so he should just shut up, OK? (Job does just shut up, and repents in dust and ashes for daring to question the Almighty, which when you consider what the Almighty has done even on the book’s own terms seems rather beyond the call of duty. But I digress.) In Psalm 19, again the real point of all the stuff about natural beauty is to make a point (though a more congenial one to most of us these days) about the relationship between God and us; and the best way the Psalmist can find to follow up his musings on stars and sun is to say (so far as I can make out) “hmm, now, what else is like the stars and the sun? Ah yes, I know—the Law!” The Law, with its magnificent provision for rape victims to marry their rapists. The Law, with its beautiful declaration that people whose genitals have been damaged are to be excluded from the congregation. Slender pickings here for anyone who would claim that religion is all about awe and wonder at the created world.
I don’t understand what category error you think Eliezer is committing when he declares himself unimpressed at God’s alleged slaughter of all firstborn Egyptian males. And there are no thorny problems built into judging the alleged actions of a god whose existence you deny; the argument just goes like this: “If your religion is correct, then a perfectly good being did this and that and the other, and those things are obviously not good. Therefore, I reject your religion as ethically unfit for decent human beings”. Of course it’s open to you to argue that actually slaughtering thousands of innocent children is a good thing when YHWH does it, but it’s not an easy argument to make with a straight face.
I don’t think Eliezer says that if some bits of the OT can be called into question then Christianity is refuted. He says that a whole lot of the OT (and the NT), taken as it was originally intended and continued to be interpreted for centuries, has been shown to be almost certainly wrong. Not quite the same thing.
If “the principle” behind this site were that (say) Eliezer is, in fact, unbiased, then it would deserve to be abandoned on presentation of weighty evidence to the contrary. But it isn’t; it’s that reducing how biased we are is usually a good idea, and the fact that all the principals here admit that they have biases is no evidence at all against that. What courtesy, exactly, are you saying should be extended to religious adherents?
DB, what makes you think Eliezer is talking only about Christianity and not equally about Orthodox Judaism? (Hint: look at his name, or his past postings here.) In fact, how can it make sense to say (1) he’s definitely talking specifically about Christianity even though (2) he says “religion” instead and (3) Jesus is only a footnote?
I think you’re clearly right that there’s some sense of the wonder of the universe in YHWH’s speech to Job, and also in (e.g.) Psalm 19. But I don’t think Eliezer’s point is much dented by this: he’s saying that although some religious folks now like to say that religion is all about the awe and wonder and beauty of the universe, those weren’t major themes until recent times. Look even at those two passages, which I think are about the best the Bible has to offer in this department. In Job the awe-and-wonder-and-beauty is strictly subordinated to the real job at hand, which is reminding Job of how much bigger and cleverer and stronger God is than him, so he should just shut up, OK? (Job does just shut up, and repents in dust and ashes for daring to question the Almighty, which when you consider what the Almighty has done even on the book’s own terms seems rather beyond the call of duty. But I digress.) In Psalm 19, again the real point of all the stuff about natural beauty is to make a point (though a more congenial one to most of us these days) about the relationship between God and us; and the best way the Psalmist can find to follow up his musings on stars and sun is to say (so far as I can make out) “hmm, now, what else is like the stars and the sun? Ah yes, I know—the Law!” The Law, with its magnificent provision for rape victims to marry their rapists. The Law, with its beautiful declaration that people whose genitals have been damaged are to be excluded from the congregation. Slender pickings here for anyone who would claim that religion is all about awe and wonder at the created world.
I don’t understand what category error you think Eliezer is committing when he declares himself unimpressed at God’s alleged slaughter of all firstborn Egyptian males. And there are no thorny problems built into judging the alleged actions of a god whose existence you deny; the argument just goes like this: “If your religion is correct, then a perfectly good being did this and that and the other, and those things are obviously not good. Therefore, I reject your religion as ethically unfit for decent human beings”. Of course it’s open to you to argue that actually slaughtering thousands of innocent children is a good thing when YHWH does it, but it’s not an easy argument to make with a straight face.
I don’t think Eliezer says that if some bits of the OT can be called into question then Christianity is refuted. He says that a whole lot of the OT (and the NT), taken as it was originally intended and continued to be interpreted for centuries, has been shown to be almost certainly wrong. Not quite the same thing.
If “the principle” behind this site were that (say) Eliezer is, in fact, unbiased, then it would deserve to be abandoned on presentation of weighty evidence to the contrary. But it isn’t; it’s that reducing how biased we are is usually a good idea, and the fact that all the principals here admit that they have biases is no evidence at all against that. What courtesy, exactly, are you saying should be extended to religious adherents?